


Forsaken

by helens78



Category: Othello - Shakespeare
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-04-04
Updated: 2003-04-04
Packaged: 2017-10-05 11:31:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helens78/pseuds/helens78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iago is not happy with the way things have been going lately, but he's still scheming to keep Othello in his bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forsaken

**Author's Note:**

> This is told first-person, and the views of Iago are not the views of the writer. &lt;_&lt;

Aye, then, let him be damned. And me alongside him.

He has married; he has chosen elsewhere for his Officer. I know this, and I pretend to understand. But I seethe, and upon the news I curled my fists so tightly that my palms bled. If anyone should feel outrage and disgust at being caught, it should be me. He is a Moor, and I a Venetian; I have a place far higher than his by right of birth. Yet he believes he must show the men that he is like as they are, that he can take a daughter of Venice to wife, that he can command troops without undue favor.

It is not undue favor for my part. I had all but earned it, until he came to me and told me that he loved me. Aye, and did I know that his love would undo my life's work, I should never have consented, but the darkness of his skin was exotic, and the perfumed oils with which he had anointed himself, I... god's teeth, but I did want him in return.

He was not the first man to mount me, nor, I think, will he be the last; for all the joys of the companionship of a woman, I long for the strength of men. It had been so long since I had found someone worth an offer, so long since someone had offered to me and I had found him worthy. The Moor is worthy; aye, and he is worthy in battle, worthy as a commander of armies -- worthy in my bed. The Moor takes me like an animal, always from behind, the oil from his anointings barely enough to ease his passage, yet that is as it should be; I want the animal, as well as the man.

He forsook my bed for some days after the marriage. Perhaps he, too, belived that the company of his new bride would be enough. Could I have withstood the Moor's rejection of me as an officer -- I think I could. But his rejection of my love, that, too, I could not stand, and so I have begun to break the bonds of love between he and his new bride. It is a masterful skill, one I have honed over years of practice. The Moor may be a deft manipulator of arms, but I hold the power to manipulate the soul; and I have done.

He ordered me to retire early to-night, and so I have; he will come to me, and not speak, and climb into my pallet along with me. He will turn me to my hands and knees, and press into me in one long, hard stroke, filling me nearly to bursting, and I will open my eyes wide and groan for him, as pleases him. He will ride me like the fine black stallion he is, and I will give him the agony of my joy at having him back in my bed.

And before he rises to return to his whore-bride, I will make him wonder yet again if he has been betrayed. He has been, of course -- betrayed as he betrayed me. I have asked myself why I cannot stop this, now that he is with me once more; why I cannot be content to allow him to remain married, but discontent, so long as he is mine as well. But this is the torrent of water rushing through a burst dam; it cannot be stopped now, and I must stand in its path, though it drowns me. I want to drown. Let it be soon.


End file.
